Blake Caracella

Blake Caracella (born 15 March 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Essendon Football Club. He is the brother of Craig Caracella.

Blake Caracella
Caracella with Richmond in December 2016
Personal information
Full name	Blake Caracella
Date of birth	(1977-03-15) 15 March 1977 (age 46)
Place of birth	Melbourne, Victoria
Original team(s)	Northern Knights (TAC Cup)
Draft	No. 10, 1994 national draft No. 2, 2004 pre-season draft
Height	186 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb)
Position(s)	Midfielder / Forward
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1997–2002	Essendon	126 (151)
2003–2004	Brisbane Lions	034 0(33)
2005–2006	Collingwood	027 0(34)
Total		187 (218)
International team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2000–2001	Australia	4 (8)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2006. ^2 State and international statistics correct as of 2001.
Career highlights
2x AFL Premiership player: (2000, 2003) AFL Rising Star nominee: 1997
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

AFL career

Essendon

Selected by Essendon in the 1994 National draft at pick 10, Caracella finally debuted with the Bombers in 1997. What had held him back was his lack of bulk—he came to the club weighing only 74 kg—however, he rectified this by pushing his playing weight up to 83 kg prior to his AFL debut. Caracella quickly established himself in the side as a skilful small forward/goalsneak, who had patience and poise. He earned himself an AFL Rising Star nomination for his work.

He was a vital part of Essendon's premiership win in 2000, contributing 35 goals for the season.

Caracella was a late inclusion to represent Australia in the first Test of the two-Test series in the 2000 International Rules Series against Ireland. He starred in the first Test, kicking a hat-trick of three-pointers (overs) during the final quarter to help secure a come-from-behind victory, scoring four overs in total.^[1] He was also among the best players for the second Test, scoring an additional three overs and helping Australia break Ireland's three-match winning streak. Caracella returned the next year and scored the only goal for Australia in the first Test as well an over in the same Test. He was less impactful in the second Test when Ireland reclaimed the title.

At the end of 2002, he was controversially traded to the Brisbane Lions.^[2]

Brisbane

Caracella's stay in Brisbane only lasted two years, during which he played 34 games, including the Lions' 2003 premiership-winning team and also their unsuccessful 2004 AFL Grand Final side. Reasons cited for his trade from both Essendon and Brisbane was to ease the strain of salary cap restrictions at both clubs.^[3]

Collingwood

Caracella was selected by Collingwood in the 2005 pre-season draft, the team that he supported as a child.

In 2005, Caracella had a solid year at Collingwood (apart from a lean patch in the final seven rounds where he only managed three goals, as well as missing Round 20), booting 34 goals in total and finished tenth in the Copeland Trophy.

Injury and retirement

In 2006, Caracella suffered a career-ending neck injury. Whilst contesting a loose ball against the Lions, Caracella slipped, and former teammate Tim Notting's hip accidentally collected his head, fracturing several vertebrae and bruising his spinal cord. At the time, field umpire Brett Allen did not consider the contact sufficient to award a free kick for high contact. The injury horrified the football community, drawing comparisons to the quadriplegia suffered by Footscray's Neil Sachse in the 1970s.^[4]

On Wednesday, 2 August, Caracella announced his retirement. At the press conference, Caracella revealed that scans had shown his spinal column was naturally narrower than average.^[5] This condition would have ruled out a career in any professional contact sport had it been diagnosed earlier.^[6]

Statistics

^[7]

Legend

G	Goals	K	Kicks	D	Disposals	T	Tackles
B	Behinds	H	Handballs	M	Marks

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
1997	Essendon	33	17	25	18	187	103	290	84	15	1.5	1.1	11.0	6.1	17.1	4.9	0.9
1998	Essendon	33	16	13	7	149	97	246	78	24	0.8	0.4	9.3	6.1	15.4	4.9	1.5
1999	Essendon	33	24	31	26	210	122	332	77	26	1.3	1.1	8.8	5.1	13.8	3.2	1.1
2000	Essendon	33	24	35	17	270	219	489	138	43	1.5	0.7	11.3	9.1	20.4	5.8	1.8
2001	Essendon	33	21	25	11	256	177	433	120	29	1.2	0.5	12.2	8.4	20.6	5.7	1.4
2002	Essendon	33	24	22	14	287	151	438	111	43	0.9	0.6	12.0	6.3	18.3	4.6	1.8
2003	Brisbane Lions	1	18	17	16	177	95	272	86	33	0.9	0.9	9.8	5.3	15.1	4.8	1.8
2004	Brisbane Lions	1	16	16	11	139	86	225	61	25	1.0	0.7	8.7	5.4	14.1	3.8	1.6
2005	Collingwood	10	21	34	19	155	101	256	88	22	1.6	0.9	7.4	4.8	12.2	4.2	1.0
2006	Collingwood	10	6	0	2	65	44	109	33	8	0.0	0.3	10.8	7.3	18.2	5.5	1.3
Career			187	218	141	1895	1195	3090	876	268	1.2	0.8	10.1	6.4	16.5	4.7	1.4

Coaching career

Caracella began working as an assistant coach at Collingwood in 2007 after a neck injury forced him into early retirement.

In 2010, he moved to Geelong, where he was responsible for the development of forward-line players.^[8]

In September 2016, he accepted a position as an assistant coach at Richmond under former teammate Damien Hardwick.^[9]

On 6 August 2019, the Essendon Football Club announced Caracella would be joining their coaching department for the 2020 season.^[10] After Ben Rutten was sacked by the Essendon Football Club at the end of the 2022 AFL season, Caracella took over as the caretaker coach for Essendon. However, Caracella was quickly replaced by Brad Scott as head coach of Essendon.

References

1. . 14 October 2000. Archived from the original on 14 October 2000. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
2. Lyon, Karen & Ahmed, Nabila (31 October 2002) Bombers on defensive over departures
3. AAP (12 November 2004) Lions de-list Caracella
4. Balancing footy injuries with the response The Age (5 June 2006)
5. Caracella to hang up the boots; ABC (2 August 2006)
6. Caracella forced to retire from AFL; The Age (2 August 2006)
7. Blake Caracella's player profile at AFL Tables
8. . geelongcats.com.au. Geelong Football Club. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
9. Greenberg, Tony (26 September 2016). "Caracella joins Tigers". Richmond FC. Bigpond. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
10. "Caracella returns to the Bombers". Essendon Football Club. 6 August 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blake Caracella.

• Blake Caracella's playing statistics from AFL Tables